Page 174 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

160 Citizenship

biological discourse in the nineteenth century, it referred to different
species of persons, hierarchically ordered as naturally superior and infe-
rior. This use of the term is now discredited. It is generally held, among
sociologists and biologists at any rate, that humans are of the same genetic
stock and that there is a continuum of individuals in terms of any of the
features used to distinguish them – color, size, intelligence, and so on –
rather than distinct groups which exist as “ natural kinds. ” Nevertheless,
claims about “ race ” are still used to distinguish people in social life more
widely. It is therefore important to study how individuals are assigned to
different “ races ” and the inequalities which are produced as a result. The

difficulty then becomes how to avoid confusing the concept “ race ” with
its referent while studying groups distinguished in this way. A common
solution for sociologists is to think in terms of “ racialized ” groups, to
which characteristics are socially attributed on the grounds of race. It is
then possible to examine differences between groups of citizens in terms
of common social position and treatment, without supposing that the
individuals who make up such groups actually possess the racial charac-
teristics attributed to them.
The term “ ethnicity ” is somewhat less commonly used, though its
contestation in cultural politics is increasing. Although it is, therefore, less
“ dangerous ” than “ race, ” the two terms are often closely connected. In
Europe, “ ethnicity ” is used to denote cultural difference, but only those
groups distinguished by color are normally referred to as “ ethnic groups. ”
Italians, Poles, and Ukrainians are rarely designated in this way (Mason,
1995 : 15). In this respect, ethnic minorities are racialized groups. In North
America, where immigration is much more established as the norm, this
is not always the case: it is more common to refer to white people as
belonging to ethnic groups. The question of the interrelation of “ race ”
and ethnicity is further complicated because what is called “ new racism ”
calls for the exclusion of minorities from the nation on the basis of their
unassimilable cultural difference, without grounding this in biological
difference. At the same time, “ ethnicity ” is increasingly mobilized in
political struggles as a self - descriptive term to represent cultural identity.
In many countries, arguments concerning the need for culturally differen-
tiated citizenship rights are now made as the only way in which racialized
ethnic minorities can be assured of respect on the part of the majorities
with whom they must live.
In this section, we will briefly analyze the history of citizenship with

regard to “ race ” and ethnicity, charting in particular the shift from assimi-
lation to differentiated citizenship rights. Assimilation as a model of
integrating immigrants into mainstream society is far from obsolete. On